Horse Manure, The Fertiliser

Shovelling It!

Down to the plot this afternoon where it was really hot and sticky, despite being cloudy. Weeded some of the deep beds on plot 29 and watered from the blue barrel, which has added comfrey tea and SM3 in. the water. The problem with the deep beds is that do dry out more than the normal beds because of their finer soil.

The people from plot 28 turned up and were busy clearing their new plot. They’re altering the layout and dismantling the old compost bins that are full of well-rotted horse manure. Well I don’t know if they’re ignorant of its value or just incredibly generous, but they said I could have as much as I wanted. I suspect the latter, really.

Well, as the phrase goes, I filled my boots. Added some to the new posh bin to further accelerate it and filled the old lidded compost bin so it will hold its value until I’m ready to use it.

But a large pile – about 8 barrow loads ? onto the empty part of the large bed on plot 29. This will be used at the end of the year to perk up the deep beds.

If there’s more going in the week, I could do with some for the area around the greenhouse that will, one day, adorn the plot!

After about three hours of shovelling it, it began to rain; so with aching shoulders from forking manure, I headed home.

Rain Gauge

I’d mentioned to Val that it would be handy to have a rain gauge so we’d know how much was being donated from the sky and she bought me one today. Being a bargain hunter, she’d got me one in the pound shop at half price, just 50p.  Fixed it up on the side of the greenhouse, so now we’ll have some idea how much rain has fallen.